Had to lookup ALICE BAND to check it as well as GRASMERE. Other than that, I thought that this was relatively easy for a Saturday. Probably finished it off in about half an hour. Across … Read more “Times 23886”
Author: ilanc
Times 23828 – aha!
I’ll be honest, haven’t voted yet. But the polls are open until 9pm. Of course, by the time I actually vote it will no longer be relevant… In any event, nothing dropped until 20A and … Read more “Times 23828 – aha!”
Times 23816 – need a sunny holiday in a villa
It’s still morning on the west coast! A fairly quick solve though the Cinque ports (and related towns) required a touch of wikipedia. I was surprised that I remembered that a certain Low had caricatured … Read more “Times 23816 – need a sunny holiday in a villa”
Jumbo 735/New Years day
This was the New Years puzzle. Haven’t done a Jumbo in some time… the solving experience seemed an eternity (over an hour). Had to search for both the lit refs (Shelley and Eliot) and was … Read more “Jumbo 735/New Years day”
Times 23804/moo cow
Sometimes jet-lag is a good thing — I was up at 3am solving this. And my mind was totally clear, so it went quite fast (modulo DEEMSTER) — the thing about jet-lag is that once … Read more “Times 23804/moo cow”
Times 23781 – Pat and Patel
A tale of two halves. Below the belt was pretty easy but the top half was quite a struggle — the NW corner had two or three intersecting obscurities (PIBROCH, PASTEL, ELIOT). And as is … Read more “Times 23781 – Pat and Patel”
Times 23769 – not bikini nor jerrycan
Fortunately I read the comments before writing this up so my concerns about CURLICUE and HASP have been resolved. Overall, a good puzzle which went rather quickly largely because the long 1A fell at first … Read more “Times 23769 – not bikini nor jerrycan”
Times 23757 – older slipways
I found the clues to be a mixed bag — lots of easy clues but with quite a few hard ones that slowed me down considerably towards the end. Almost all across clues in the … Read more “Times 23757 – older slipways”
Times 23751 – two women
Accessing the online version was somewhat technically challenging but the puzzle itself was pretty reasonable — everything fell into place after about 20′ — though the NE corner was the last to succumb. One new … Read more “Times 23751 – two women”
Times 23745 – I need the loo
Some very clever wordplay (and unlike today’s Guardian no errors!). I especially liked 1D because the definition was so well-hidden in a convincing apposite surface. Across 6 A,T IT – the kind that sings. 9 … Read more “Times 23745 – I need the loo”